Saltist 4500 feels sluggish after new set of 3 gears

[steelfish]

I was looking for a similar experience and look for an advice on what to do after swapping main gear, Oscillation gear and pinion gear on a New model Saltist 4500 spinning reel, a little bit of back story of the reel, the reel was never serviced and felt like a real egg beater or coffee grinder (now I know why some guys called them that way), the reel had most of the bearings in bad shape including the IAR as well as corrosion on the main gear and oscillation gear as you will see in some pictures, the owner didnt wanted to spend for a set of new bearings and new gears so we traded it for some rodbuilding jobs, that was few months ago.

but it was until few weeks ago that I took that reel again to my bench, I started to install just new bearings and new IAR and the reel of course felt pretty freely and "smooth" but with some roughness when turning the handle which it wasnt surprise at all after checking how pitted the main gear and the oscillation gear were , so I ordered a new the main gear-pinion gear as a set and the Oscillation gear, now the reel feel smooth but not as freely was before and also feels sluggish as if its over-tightened somewhere.
I tried loosing it a bit in some screws but never hit the one causing the problem so, after many try outs I started to think that maybe I should needed to use the reel as is for some time until settle everything down  or maybe I used too much grease (which pretty much I think is not the case) so, since it feels 2x better than before I stopped there.
I searched to see if had a similar experience and found this in another thread (I bringing it from there to dont hijack the thread)

https://alantani.com/index.php/topic,36982.15.html

Every modern spinner has several points where shims are critical.

You can replace them as you found them but the last critical piece of the puzzle is the tightness of everything associated during reassembly.

If you tighten down the rotor more than original that can move the pinion forward just enough to feel rougher than before. Same with too loose, the pinion can have more play the other way. On some reels the tightness of the side plate screws can change the tolerances. The reel should have 1mm of play side to side with the handle and the same forward to back with the pinion.

Change the tightness of things and it can be very difficult to recover the original smooth feel. Spin the reel too much when its a touch too tight and rough and you get roughness forever more.

I mark the rotor so I don't overtighten it as well as the main gear to pinion relationship.

But sometimes replacing the pinion and main with new ones and doing a new original shim job is the only cure. When you take a look at how much one shim changes the tolerance (a fraction of a millimeter) then the scope and sensitivity of the issue should be apparent....

Comparatively, a spinner just cannot be serviced as frequently as a conventional reel due to these shimming issues in my experience without replacing the main and pinion. Shimano famously hands them out like candy when Stellas are sent in for their gold service or whatever they call it now (if they even do it still). It was a significant selling issue for Stellas as compared to Daiwa's very expensive service.

so, JOhn, amigo, what places do you recommend to check again for the tightness of the screws?
apparently using the reel as is which it feels not so smooth but a bit "slow" is not recommended, I just serviced another saltist 5000 which is also not new but the bearings were in good shape as well as the gears, I serviced it the same way as the 4500 model.

any tip or recommendation, thats why I kind of hate spinning reels, they tend to dont feel the same way after opening them to repair or just service

[johndtuttle]

What you are looking for, iirc from talking to Tony at Penn, is about 1MM of play back and forth with the handle and then 1-2mm back and forth with the Pinion.

You'll find the handle shims with their bearings on both sides but usually the handle side. The Pinion can be shimmed behind the "gears" with the rear bearing or before the AR bearing on the other side of the gears themselves or on top of the pinion assembly under the rotor...usually.

I think the techs that assemble these reels are true magicians knowing just where to add a shim to get it right. A shim before or after the gear itself on the pinion positions it in relation to the main. Whereas the handle bearing shims adjust the amount of contact the main has with the pinion.

Oh, and you should be able to tighten down the side plate screws as much as you like but the rotor is one that if you overdo it will really tighten the reel up and cause wear on the main and Pinion as it sucks the pinion forward. The shim under the rotor helps prevent having to over tighten the rotor nut.

What you want to do is spin the reel with the side plate and rotor off and observe the position of the pinion. As you tighten down the rotor notice if the Pinion is pulled forward or pushed back and causes any binding. Use the shims to fix the position of the pinion.

With the rotor you just have to be sure to not over tighten the nut. If it wobbles too much with the nut barely tight add a shim underneath the rotor to take up some of the space so the nut snugs it without cranking down too much.

If your reel feels sluggish with new gears it's probably too tight. Relax the rotor nut a tiny bit and make sure if you can that the handle has a tiny side to side play.

Good luck....

[steelfish]

thanks amigo, I will check all those areas out and I will report back, soon I hope.